Minecraft: The Mines
by Golden Keyblade
Summary: Upon prompting from the Silverfish, Herobrine explores the Abandoned Mine Shaft adjoining the Stronghold. There he will find a tragic tale of treachery, betrayal, and loss. Part 3; series has been suspended.


**Minecraft: The Mines **

**A/N: Yes, after all this time, it's finally here: the sequel to _Minecraft: The Stronghold_, which was in turn the sequel to _Minecraft: The Night_! My backspace key seems to be acting up a bit and trying to combine lines here, so I'll make this author's note quick: in case I didn't already say it, I don't own _Minecraft_. Notch does (or is it Jeb that owns it now?). Also, I'm sorry this is so late. **

**Well, let's get to the story, shall we?**

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><p>Herobrine slowly walked through the stone tunnels of the Abandoned Mine Shaft. He didn't know exactly where he was going; all the Silverfish had told him was that there was a portal he needed to enter in the Mines, and that there would be someone to guide him there.<p>

He placed another torch on the wall. Since Herobrine had all known blocks in his inventory it would have been as simple to use glowstone for light instead. After all, it was a lot brighter and provided a softer glow than the harsh light of torches. But Herobrine liked to use torches; they just felt more natural to use, and anyway, glowstone took up far too much space. These tunnels were narrow.

As he walked, Herobrine began to reflect on the very- there was no other word for it- odd chain of events that had led him here. First he had met then Endermen on the beach, talked to them, and promised to return them to their native dimension, the End. Then he had used an Eye of Ender as a way to find the Stronghold and, with it, the End Portal deep inside it. Then he had met with the Silverfish and found the way to activate the portal.

And that was why he was now wandering these mines. According to the Silverfish, the only way to open the portal was to combine Ender Pearls (the teleporting gemstones all Endermen carried) with a special kind of powder that could only be found in one place: an ancient citadel in the Nether. The powder had to be obtained by splitting the rod of some kind of being called a Blaze. The only way to reach the lost citadel was by use of a portal hidden deep in an Abandoned Mine Shaft.

'Unfortunately,' thought Herobrine, 'I haven't found a portal, or even the mysterious person the Silverfish told me was waiting here to show me where it was.'

And at that moment, Herobrine heard a voice.

"Excuse me," said the voice, "but I believe that you're looking for a Nether Portal."

Herobrine turned around. Standing in the hallway just behind him was a spider. It was looking up at him, and was apparently the source of the voice.

"Yes, my friend," said Herobrine, walking towards the spider. "I am indeed looking for a portal. Do you know...?"

Herobrine paused. There was something strange about this spider. It was different from any he had ever seen. This spider was smaller than others, and it was a very deep blue, rather than the typical dark brown.

"Excuse me for staring," said Herobrine, "but through all my travels, I have never seen a spider quite like yourself before. Tell me, where do you come from?"

"I am a Cave Spider," said the spider. "Come with me, and I will show you where I come from."

Herobrine followed the spider. They passed through a few gaps which were only one block high, which forced the brother of Notch to break an additional block in order to get through.

Eventually they reached a much larger room. Cobwebs were packed densely around the chamber. The Cave Spider, as it called itself, turned and looked at Herobrine.

"There," he said, pointing with one of his eight legs at a metallic box hidden by the dense cobwebs. "Look there... and discover the secret of our race. Look there...and unlock a truth hidden for centuries. Look there...and redeem us."

Herobrine looked. And what he saw would change his view of the Spider nation forever.

Sitting there was a Cave Spider Spawner.

That was unmistakably what it was. The magical doll which lay inside the burning cage was smaller than usual; it had the same bluish tinge as the Cave Spider. For a moment Herobrine simply gazed at it, unable to believe what he had just seen.

"What is this?" he asked in astonishment. "Are you...a prefix mob?" He had heard of prefix mobs, but only inside his mind; it was one of the thoughts he sometimes received from his brother, Notch the Creator, "mobs" being the term humans used for beings other than themselves. Prefix mobs were variations on existing creatures, with traits which may be entirely different from the original. Currently, the single prefix mob in Minecraftia was the Charged Creeper, which occurred when a Creeper was struck by lightning.

"Indeed," said the Cave Spider. "The Cave Spiders are what you would call a prefix mob. We have hidden here for a long time."

"But how is this possible?" asked Herobrine. "I never heard of multiple kinds of spiders."

"Sit down," said the Cave Spider. "I will tell you why you have never heard of us. And then, once you have heard our story, you will understand."

Herobrine sat down on a stone block and listened. The Cave Spider began to speak.

"It was thousands of years ago when the story began," the arachnid said. "The Spider Nation was the mightiest on the face of Minecraftia. The zombies, the skeletons, and the Creepers had not yet risen, and the Slimes lurked only deep under the surface. Creatures such as the cow were much as they are today: nomads who wander the forests and plains, caring about little except their next meal.

"This was the Age of the Spider. Our kind ruled above and below the surface. But we were not united; each group had different interests. The Spiders who lived above ground became aggressive hunters, competing fiercely for food. On the other hand, those who lived below ground learned how to survive on mushrooms, so we had no food shortages; we were thus freed to dedicate our lives to becoming advanced and sophisticated.

"It was many years before the two sub-races advanced enough to where they could contact each other easily. Once we had, everything began to improve for a while; the Land Spiders taught us how to hunt, and we taught them all that we had learned in our isolation. For a while, everything was perfect once more."

"So what happened?" asked Herobrine.

"Envy," said the Cave Spider simply. "You see, while we were smaller and were not as fast as the Land Spiders, it was obvious that we were much wiser, and they soon grew jealous of us. We in turn envied their strength and speed on the hunt. Envy led to tensions, and soon all the spiders were plunged into a deadly civil war.

"The combat was one-sided. Despite our cunning traps and strategy, the Land Spiders were too strong and fast for us to contend with. We were doomed from the start. But we had a final plan: we created a massive underground bunker, a stone chamber around our races' single Spawner; we now stand inside this very chamber. It was to be the place where our race would make our last stand."

The Cave Spider fell silent for a moment, as if it didn't want to remember what it was about to say. Finally it spoke once again.

"We never got the chance," he said quietly.

"You see, we had created the chamber by hollowing a large section of dirt, which is soft enough for us to destroy with our feet. We are unable to break stone. Land Spiders, on the other hand, could break stone and other hard blocks, and place them as well. And so, from what was meant to be our last stand, they created a trap.

"The battle began. We fought bravely, and for a while we thought we were even winning. The Land Spiders were retreating from the cavern. But then they did something we never predicted."

"What?" asked Herobrine, scared of what the arachnid might say.

"They sealed us in," said the Cave Spider quietly. "As they retreated, they blocked off the entrances to the massive chamber with stone. They sealed it up and fled. We tried to escape, but we were simply unable to break past the rock of the walls."

"So...what happened?" asked Herobrine, transfixed by the story.

"For thousands of years, almost nothing," said the blue arachnid. "We were confined to this cave, and so we had to monitor our population very carefully. We deactivated our Spawner when we were too many, and reactivated it when we became too few. After centuries, we became resigned to the belief that we would never escape. But then..."

The Cave Spider smiled and looked Herobrine directly in the eye.

"Our friends found us," it said.

"Friends?" asked Herobrine in confusion.

"They did not know of us at first. They were ordinary miners looking for diamonds. They broke through into our chamber by accident, freeing us.

"Miners?" asked Herobrine. "So... these friends were human?"

The Cave Spider tilted its head, as if it was hard for its mind to remember what the word meant. "No," it said after a pause. "They were like humans, but they were not human. Humans would not appear for many years."

"Then who?" asked Herobrine, suddenly eager to hear more about this mystery race.

"We never knew their name," said the Cave Spider. "I have only ever heard of them as the Friends. They could do all humans could do, and far more. They built immense city structures above the surface, and expansive mines below it. We were with them below-ground, but we could not return to the surface and wreak our vengeance on our brothers, as we had planned; after centuries in darkness, light was now unbearable to us.

"For a while, everything was wonderful once more. In accordance with our wishes, our Friends kept our continued existence a secret from the Land Spiders. They revealed to us all they had created, and gave us stories of what they had done above-ground. They even crafted more Spawners for our race, so that we could spread to other lands."

"This race could craft Spawners?" asked Herobrine in astonishment. This was something; even he could produce only pig Spawners. There were mod spells which could be used to create Spawners for any mob, but such spells were dangerous and could even lead to a human's disappearance from all existence.

"Yes," said the Cave Spider. "I believe that the art was lost centuries ago. But as I was saying, for a time, our lives were once again happy. But once again, it came to an end.

"After a while, the Friends who came to our caves and tunnels seemed to become...different. They seemed tired, as if they had been working hard. They said this was due to a war, which had broken out on the surface. They refused to describe the war; they only said it was one that was taking a heavy toll on their race. We could sympathize; we had been through a war ourselves.

"Then, one day, no Friend came to our caves. Neither did one come the next day, or the next. At first, we believed the war had simply gotten closer, and everyone was needed to fight. But after a week of no visits, we worried. We went to search the tunnels for them. Nothing. We even sent a few scouts into their nearest building, an underground castle the Friends called a Stronghold. It was abandoned."

Herobrine gulped. Suddenly he had a feeling he knew where this was going. "The...the Friends were the ones who built the Strongholds?"

"Yes," said the Cave Spider. "They were labyrinthine structures, immense stone buildings with prisons, fountains, and even living quarters. But as I said, the whole place was abandoned.

"Then, two weeks after the visits ended, we located an injured Friend in the tunnels near the Stronghold. Someone or something had badly hurt him, and he was desperate for food. We brought him to our cave, gave him food, and then asked him what had happened.

"We did not understand much of what the Friend said; he seemed to be rather delirious from exhaustion and agony from his injuries. He spoke of a portal he and the rest of the Friends in the Stronghold had opened, and strange shadows which came through. He claimed that the other Friends that had been in the Stronghold were now dead, and that he had been badly injured.

"For the next few days, the Friend ranted about things he claimed to have seen: huge black flying creatures from a different dimension; towers of obsidian under a sky without stars; and above all, he spoke of something which he called the Eyes."

"The Eyes?" asked Herobrine, his attention growing by the minute.

"That's right," confirmed the Cave Spider. "While he was delirious, he seemed to be obsessed with the Eyes. He kept taking about 'the Eyes of Ender' or something, and he said they were 'the way to send them back'. He also spoke repeatedly about some kind of rod. He kept saying over and over, 'It's in the Citadel. I need to fix the Eyes. It's the only way to send them back.' We didn't understand most of it.

"After several days, the Friend died, despite all of our attempts to heal him. We have never seen another Friend in all this time. We can only assume they were killed in their mysterious war, or that the shadow creatures killed them all as they did the ones in the Stronghold. All we know is that, once again, we are alone."

The Cave Spider finished its story and gazed again at Herobrine. "So," he said. "Now that you have heard what I wished to tell you, I will help you in return. Weren't you on the way to the Portal?"

"Um...yes," said Herobrine, still bursting with unasked questions about the Friends. "Where is it?"

"This way," said the Cave Spider, turning and walking out of the chamber. Herobrine, shaking his head in wonder, stood up and followed him.

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><p><strong>AN: So yeah, it's another cliffie. I must say, this story was interesting for me to write; I liked examining the evolution of the spider race as a nation. I considered adding some kind of flashback that would provide an actual look at a battle, but I decided that was overkill. **

**Once again, I'm sorry this is so late. This story was just a bit hard to write in the beginning. Also, I'm sorry this was kind of just the same thing as number one; hopefully part 4 will be more exciting. I will try to get it out soon, but with Christmas and my birthday coming up, there's no way that will happen. I'll do my best.**

**R&R!**


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